Modern bathroom lavatories or sinks commonly employ a standard form of elongate pop-up stopper or plug that depends into a drain pipe, and that is extensible upwardly therefrom through a drain opening located at the bottom of a bowl of the lavatory or sink. The elongate pop-up stopper or plug has a cap or top structure at its upper end region that, when elevated above the associated drain opening, opens the drain opening to let liquid from the bowl (referred to herein as “drain liquid”) discharge through the drain opening. When lowered to extend substantially flush with the drain opening, the cap or top structure of the pop-up stopper or plug closes and seals the drain opening, thereby retaining drain liquid in the bowl of the associated lavoratory or sink.
More specifically, a typical conventional prior art form of elongate pop-up stopper or plug that is currently being widely sold at hardware, home supply stores and the like is shown in FIG. 1 and is indicated generally by the numeral 50. The elongate stopper or plug 50 is often a one piece device, but may take the form of a pressed-together or bonded-together assembly of individual components that ordinarily does not disassemble.
Referring to FIG. 2, a conventional prior art form of drain valve assembly 40 is shown that is presently widely used with bathroom lavoratories and sinks. The drain valve assembly 40 has relatively movable parts including an elongate pop-up stopper or plug 50 typically of the type shown in FIG. 1. The conventional prior art stopper or plug 50 has a cap or top structure portion 45 at its upper end region that extends above a drain opening 80 of an associated depending drain pipe 75 when the cap or top structure portion 45 of the stopper or plug 50 is raised to an elevated position above the drain opening 80, as is shown in FIG. 2. The cap or top structure portion 45 closes and seals the drain opening 80 of the associated drain valve assembly 40 when the stopper or plug 50 is lowered to extend substantially flush with the drain opening 80.
As can be seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, the conventional stopper or plug 50 commonly has four identical, elongate, perpendicularly radiating ribs or fins 55 that extend substantially vertically to strengthen and/or to reinforce a central region 56 of the stopper or plug 50, and has a lower end region 57 which includes a formation 60 that defines an operating opening 65. As can also be seen in FIG. 2, the drain valve assembly 40 ordinarily includes a conventional, generally horizontally extending, rod-like operating lever 70 that extends into the interior of the drain pipe 75 through a conventional ball-type pivotal connection assembly 90 that joins with the drain pipe 75 at about the same level below the drain opening 80 as where the lower end formation 60 of the stopper or plug 50 resides within the interior of the drain pipe 75.
In a conventional manner well known to those skilled in the art (and which is illustrated in drawings of U.S. Pat. No. 4,380,834 to Wentz, and in published U.S. Application No. 2004/0255378 to Tracy, the disclosures of all of which are incorporated herein by reference), the generally horizontally extending, rod-like operating lever 70 typically has an inner or front end region 71 located within the drain pipe 75, and an outer or rear end region 72 located outside and to the rear of the drain pipe 75. The inner end region 71 extends through the operating opening 65 of the stopper or plug 50 to establish a driving connection between the rod-like operating lever 70 and the stopper or plug 50. The outer end region 72 is connected in a conventional manner with a generally vertically extending operating rod (as is shown in drawings of U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,327,474, 7,941,878 and 6,023,795, the disclosures of all of which are incorporated herein by reference).
When the outer or rear end region 72 of the rod-like operating lever 70 is depressed, the inner or front end region 71 of the rod-like operating lever 70 is raised or moved upwardly, thereby causing the stopper or plug 50 to be raised so the cap or top structure 45 of the stopper or plug 50 is elevated above the drain opening 80 to thereby permit drain liquid from the bowl of an associated conventional bathroom lavatory or sink (not shown) to discharge into the drain pipe 75. When the outer or rear end region 72 of the rod-like operating lever 70 is raised, the inner or front end region 71 moves downwardly, driving the stopper or plug 50 downwardly, and causing the cap or top structure 45 to extend substantially flush with the drain opening 80, thereby closing and sealing the drain opening 80.
Periodic removal or withdrawal of the conventional stopper or plug 50 from the drain pipe 75 (so the stopper or plug 50 can be cleaned of collected hair strands and other foreign matter, or so the stopper or plug 50 can be replaced, if broken) is normally prevented or rendered difficult because the inner or front end region 71 of the rod-like operating lever 70 extends through the operating opening 65 that is defined by the lower end region formation 60 of the elongate stopper or plug 50. The extension of the inner end region 71 of the rod-like operating lever 70 through the operating opening 65 of the stopper or plug 50 retains the stopper or plug 50 within the drain pipe 75, and thereby prevents the stopper or plug 50 from being raised or lifted out of the drain pipe 75. Sometimes an unknowledgeable consumer will cause breakage of the lower end formation 60 of the lower end region 57 of the stopper or plug 50 when he or she attempts to forcefully withdraw the conventional stopper or plug 50 from the associated drain pipe 75.
To properly effect withdrawal of the conventional stopper or plug 50 from an associated drain pipe 75 for cleaning or replacement, it is normally necessary to disassemble the pivotal connection assembly 90 that couples the rodlike operating lever 70 to the drain pipe 75. Disassembly of the pivotal connection assembly 90 is accomplished by unthreading a normally externally knurled retaining cap 91 of the assembly 90, which permits a ball 92 affixed to the rod-like operating lever 70 to be pulled rearwardly out of a housing 93 of the connection assembly 90. Withdrawal of the rod-like operating lever 70 from the housing 93 (which occurs as the ball 92 is pulled out of the housing 93) causes the front or inner end region 71 of the rod-like operating lever 70 to move out of the operating opening 65 at the lower end region 57 of the stopper or plug 50, which frees the stopper or plug 50 to be lifted out of the drain pipe 75 for cleaning or replacement, as may be needed.
To properly reinstall a clean stopper or plug 50 (or to install a replacement stopper or plug 50) in the drain pipe 75, the stopper or plug 50 must be lowered into an operating position within the drain pipe 75. However, in positioning a stopper or plug 50 in the drain pipe 75, care must be taken to orient the stopper or plug 50 so its lower end formation 60 of the lower end region 57 is positioned in the manner shown in FIG. 2, with the opening 65 oriented to receive the inner or front end region 71 of the rod-like operating lever 70. The inner or front end region 71 is then fished, threaded or inserted through the opening 65, and the threaded, externally knurled cap 91 is thereafter reinstalled and tightened gently in place on the housing 93 to establish a leak-free reinstallation of the pivotal connection assembly 90.
As is well known to those skilled in the art, a variety of proposals have been made during recent years to provide drain valve stoppers or plugs with on-board strainers of various types for collecting strands of hair and bits of other foreign matter strained from drain liquid discharged into a drain pipe of a bathroom lavatory or sink, while hopefully permitting drain liquid to discharge in a relatively normal way down the drain pipe. Patents that disclose such proposals include U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,082 to Ridgeway, as well as the Wentz and Tracy references identified above. The disclosures of all three of these documents are incorporated herein by reference.
A problem with the stopper or plug disclosed in the Ridgeway patent is that it does not have an operating opening (such as the operating opening 65) near its lower end region through which a rod-like operating lever (such as the rod-like lever 70) extends to positively drive the stopper or plug (such as the stopper or plug 50) upwardly and downwardly. Although simply resting a stopper or plug atop an operating lever (in accordance with the proposal of Ridgeway) enables an operating lever to positively drive the stopper or plug in an upward direction, the lack of a proper driving connection between the operating lever and the stopper or plug of Ridgeway does nothing to enable the rod-like operating lever to force the stopper or plug downwardly to cause the cap of the stopper or plug to drop into and seal the associated drain opening—hence the arrangement of the Ridgeway proposal often fails to function properly.
A problem with the stoppers or plugs of the type proposed in the Wentz and Tracy references is that such driving connections as are provided by operating levers extending through operating openings at the lower end regions of the stoppers or plugs prevent the stoppers or plugs from being lifted fully out of the associated drain pipes (as has been described) when the stoppers or plugs need to be withdrawn from the associated drain pipes for cleaning. Indeed, a problem encountered with a vast majority of strainer-carrying stopper or plug proposals is that the stoppers or plugs cannot be raised and lifted fully out of the associated drain pipes without first disassembling the conventional ball-type pivotal connection assemblies that establish pivotal couplings where the rod-like operating levers enter the associated drain pipes.
A problem with most proposed drain valve stoppers or plugs that include strainers is that the strainers tend to fill with hair or foreign matter, and tend to clog rather quickly, which means that the drain valve stoppers or plugs need to be lifted out of the associated drain pipes for cleaning at more frequent intervals than is required if stoppers and plugs incorporate no strainers. What this means is that, with most stoppers or plugs that carry strainers, the ball-type pivot assemblies need to be disassembled more frequently than is the case if the stoppers or plugs carried no strainers.
Regardless of whether an elongate drain valve stopper or plug is provided with a strainer, the process of removing the stopper or plug by first disassembling and removing the associated ball-type pivotal connection assembly (such as the ball-type assembly 90) from the associated drain pipe has been awkward, messy and time consuming. Furthermore, the process is rendered even more awkward and time-consuming when the operating lever needs to be fished back through the operating opening located at the lower end region of the stopper or plug after the stopper or plug (and any associated strainer) has been cleaned.
In view of the explanation presented above, the reader will understand that a long-standing need has existed for an improved drain valve stopper or plug having a strainer associated therewith that can be quickly and easily lifted out of an associated drain pipe for cleaning without any need for a time-consuming, awkward and messy disassembly of the associated ball-type pivotal connection of an operating lever to the drain pipe, and without any need to thread the operating lever back through an operating opening of the stopper or plug during reassembly of the ball-type pivotal connection.